Spotlight casts a harsh glare on North Carolina

You know, the stunning beauty of the Outer Banks, the majesty of the Smokies, great basketball, maybe even better barbecue. A great place to retire, to study, to work and to live and raise a family.

All this isn't the result of some clever marketing campaign. It's the truth, a truth built by wise decisions made by leaders over many, many years. Over those years perhaps we've grown lazy. Perhaps at times we have mistaken the labors of those gone before and the resulting sunny reputation of the state as a birthright, something that couldn't possibly be challenged.

Well.

We're used to nationwide publicity, but not like this. In recent months, and especially in recent days, commentary from virtually every heavy hitter in the nation's opinion lineup has been asking a question:

"What on earth is going on in North Carolina?"

On Sunday, July 7, the Washington Post editorialized about "North Carolina's abortion-law sham.''

Then on July 9, the New York Times weighed in with an editorial titled "The decline of North Carolina.'' It contained a laundry list of items we've discussed on this page. It mentioned that - despite having the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country - state lawmakers moved to end federal unemployment benefits for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, a decision no other state has made. It listed the decision not to expand Medicaid, the rollback of the Racial Justice Act, corrosive cuts to public education, the rush to impose voter and voting rules that target opposition voters.

To that list we'd add the return of payday lending, overreaching from Raleigh into the affairs of local governments, mulling drug testing for aid for the down-and-out, essentially outlawing the rising of the sea, attempting to gut state commissions, rolling back environmental laws, etc. etc. back to the ugly fight over Amendment One.

These things add up. These things can change a reputation.

These things can build a new one.

The Times concluded, "North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.''

We were in no particular mood to fight that conclusion last week, as the national spotlight was once again on Raleigh thanks to the aforementioned abortion legislation cooked up in the legislature. The legislation in question, presented as a women's health measure, was larded with restrictions on access that seemed to virtually ban the practice in the state.

It first surfaced two weeks ago in the Senate in a bill barring Sharia law, and then in the House last week in a bill about motorcycle safety.

Proponents argued the merits of the bill, but the fact is most people couldn't get past the fact that abortion and motorcycle safety were in the same bill.

Check that: They were in the same sentence.

Now that's legislatin'.

If you want a formula for ridicule, it would be hard to cook up a better mix.

Gov. Pat McCrory, endorsed by this newspaper (twice) was showing the stirrings of perhaps trying to rein in some of this nonsense. We hope somebody does.

Meanwhile, amid the condemnation on high from the New York Times, another comment caught our attention in a post on the web over at PoliticsNC by North Carolinian Thomas Mills. Mills related the harsh reputation earned by Carpetbaggers in the wake of the Civil War, and sees parallels. Mills wrote of the current leadership that's drawn so much focus to the state, "It's not that they're not from here. It's that they don't respect our institutions, our history or our culture. They have no appreciation for the work we did as a state to modernize ? For the past 50 years, our leaders, Democratic and Republican, kept our basest instincts at bay. While we weren't perfect, we navigated Civil Rights better than our neighbors and put faith in education. We argued around the margins, but at our core, we were a centrist state, known for good government and a destination for businesses and families. But these guys, they don't come with any sense of history or moderation.''